“How can you go to Martinique?”

“Oh, I forgot!”

Mr. Raleigh did not reply, and they both sat listening to the faint night-side noises of the world.

“You are very quiet,” he said at last, ceasing to fling waifs upon the stream.

“And you could be very gay, I believe.”

“Yes.  I am full of exuberant spirits.  Do you know what day it is?”

“It is my birthday.”

“It is my birthday!”

“How strange!  The Jews would tell you that this sweet first of August was the birthday of the world.

  “’’Tis like the birthday of the world,
  When earth was born in bloom,’”—­

she sang, but paused before her voice should become hoarse in tears.

“Do you know what you promised me on my birthday?  I am going to claim it.”

“The present.  You shall have a cast which I had made from one of my mother’s fancies or bas-reliefs,—­she only does the front of anything,—­a group of fleurs-de-lis whose outlines make a child’s face, my face.”

“It is more than any likeness in stone or pencil that I shall ask of you.”

“What then?”

“You cannot imagine?”

“Monsieur” she whispered, turning toward him, and blushing in the twilight, “est ce que c’est moi?”

There came out the low west-wind singing to itself through the leaves, the drone of a late-carousing honey-bee, the lapping of the water on the shore, the song of the wood-thrush replete with the sweetness of its half-melody; and ever and anon the pensive cry of the whippoorwill fluted across the deepening silence that summoned all these murmurs into hearing.  A rustle like the breeze in the birches passed, and Mrs. Purcell retarded her rapid step to survey the woods-people who rose out of the shade and now went on together with her.  It seemed as if the loons and whippoorwills grew wild with sorrow that night, and after a while Mrs. Purcell ceased her lively soliloquy, and as they walked they listened.  Suddenly Mr. Raleigh turned.  Mrs. Purcell was not beside him.  They had been walking on the brook-edge; the path was full of gaps and cuts.  With a fierce shudder and misgiving, he hurriedly retraced his steps, and searched and called; then, with the same haste, rejoining Marguerite, gained the house, for lanterns and assistance.  Mrs. Purcell sat at the drawing-room window.

“Comment?” cried Marguerite, breathlessly.

“Oh, I had no idea of walking in fog up to my chin,” said Mrs. Purcell; “so I took the short cut.”

“You give me credit for the tragic element,” she continued, under her breath, as Mr. Raleigh quietly passed her.  “That is old style.  To be sure, I might as well die there as in the swamps of Florida.  Purcell is ordered to Florida.  Of course, I am ordered too!” And she whirled him the letter which she held.

Other letters had been received with the evening-mail, and one that made Mr. Raleigh’s return in September imperative occasioned some discussion in the House of Laudersdale.  The result that that gentleman secured one more than he had intended in the spring; and if you ever watch the shipping-list, the arrival of the Spray-Plough at Calcutta, with Mr. and Mrs. Raleigh among the passengers, will be seen by you as soon as me.